Longtime aide says Obama misled on gay marriage opposition

FILE - In this Tuesday June 17, 2014, file photo President Barack Obama speaks at the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) fundraiser gala in Gotham Hall in New York. President Barack Obama, who established his bona fides as a gay and lesbian rights champion when he endorsed same-sex marriage, has steadily extended his administration’s advocacy to the smallest and least accepted band of the LGBT rainbow: transgender Americans. Obama during his first year in office became the first chief executive to say “transgender” in a speech, the first to name transgender political appointees and the first to prohibit job bias against transgender government workers. He also signed hate crime legislation that represented the first federal civil rights protections for transgender people in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE – In this Tuesday June 17, 2014, file photo President Barack Obama speaks at the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) fundraiser gala in Gotham Hall in New York. President Barack Obama, who established his bona fides as a gay and lesbian rights champion when he endorsed same-sex marriage, has steadily extended his administration’s advocacy to the smallest and least accepted band of the LGBT rainbow: transgender Americans. Obama during his first year in office became the first chief executive to say “transgender” in a speech, the first to name transgender political appointees and the first to prohibit job bias against transgender government workers. He also signed hate crime legislation that represented the first federal civil rights protections for transgender people in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of President Barack Obama’s longtime advisers says Obama misled the public for years by claiming he opposed same sex marriage when he actually supported it
Former Obama strategist David Axelrod writes in a new book that Obama modified his public position to say he supported civil unions but not gay marriage. Axelrod says that’s because his political advisers told him supporting gay marriages could hurt him politically.
Obama in 2010 said his position was evolving, and then announced he supported gay marriage in during the run-up to his re-election.
The revelation comes as the Supreme Court prepares to resolve the gay marriage issue nationwide in a few months.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest isn’t disputing Axelrod’s account but says Obama’s actions in support of gays and lesbians are clear.

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